US major Chevron has been instructed by the Israeli energy ministry to restart operations at the Tamar gas platform offshore Israel, a company spokeswoman said May 21, following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The recent conflict began on May 10, with rockets fired at Israeli cities from the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military carrying out air strikes in Gaza. Hamas also reportedly said it had targeted offshore gas installations.
Chevron on May 12 said it had closed the Tamar platform on the order of the energy ministry, but has now been instructed to resume operations.
"We remain focused on the safe and reliable supply of gas in compliance with the laws and regulations of Israel," the spokeswoman said May 21.
"Chevron's top priority is the safety of our personnel, the communities in which we operate, the environment and our facilities," she said.
While Tamar was closed, Chevron continued production from its other Israeli offshore asset -- the larger Leviathan field.
The Tamar platform is located closer to Gaza than Leviathan whose platform is further north offshore Israel, close to the port of Haifa.
It was not the first time that the Tamar platform -- which is thought to be within the range of Palestinian rockets -- had been shut in because of conflict in the region.
In May 2019, Israel decided to halt gas supplies from the platform after an increase in cross-border fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers that lasted for three days.
Before that in 2014, Hamas said its armed wing targeted the Noa offshore gas installation in a rocket attack, though Israel said no gas target had been hit. Noa had already ceased production in 2013 after Tamar started up.
Chevron operates Tamar with a 25% stake. Its partners are Israel's Delek Drilling (22%), Isramco (28.75%), Tamar Petroleum (16.75%), Dor Gas (4%) and Everest (3.5%).
Tamar production
According to data from minority partner Delek, total Tamar gas production in 2020 was 291 Bcf (8.2 Bcm) -- or an average of 22 million cu m/d.
The maximum capacity of gas supply from Tamar into the national transmission system is some 1.1 Bcf/d, or 31 million cu m/d.
Tamar has produced more than 69 Bcm of gas since it started up in 2013, and has remaining 2P reserves of around 300 Bcm, Delek said.
Gas is produced by five production wells further offshore and flows through two 140 km pipelines to the primary and main processing facility on the Tamar platform where most of the gas processing takes place.
Gas is then transmitted from the platform through a pipeline to an onshore terminal in Ashdod, and into the Israeli market through the INGL national gas pipeline. Some Tamar gas is also exported to Jordan and Egypt.
S&P Global Platts Analytics estimates that Tamar had produced around 20 million cu m/d in 2021 before the platform was closed, with some 3 million cu m/d used for export to Egypt.
Production from Leviathan -- which started up at the end of 2019 -- has been higher at some 30 million cu m/d, with some 6 million cu m/d of spare capacity, Platts Analytics estimates.
